The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1887-06-12
NOVELS FOR THE BOYS.
ENORMOUS EDITIONS FOR JUVE-
NILE AMERICAN READERS.

Goung America An Unsuitable Devourer
of Cheap Observation-Disclosures to
Contriburors-How the Copy is Turned
Out-In War Times.
The boys of this country are Unsuitable
devourers of cheap literature. There are
just a dozen cheap libraries in this city
that issue half dime and dime novels foI
boys. All except one issue a book every
week, the average of each edition being
about 81, 900. Some of the books run into
several editions One of Meredith's yarns
was put ON the press seven times. An
other story also sold enormously. About
400 authors are engaged in writing these
books. The prices paid vary greatly. One
publisher says he pays from so to SD to
new men and gets his old writers very
cheap For the $40 to SIS writer has to
furnish copy of $4,000 words, or from
twenty to thirty words for a C1Rt. An
other library pays about S25, and goes up
to $500 for reputation and popularity.
Another pays $50 to $3.50, and won't ac-
cept anything it doesn't consider worth
SO IL issues printed instructions TO al
contributors as follows:
authors who write for our cOnsidera-
ton will bear in mind that: We prohibit
all things offensive to good taste, in eX-
preston or incident; we prohibit subjects
or characters that carry an immoral faint;
we prohibit the repetition OF any occur
renee which, though true, is better left I'M
told; we prohibit what cannot be read
with satisfaction by every right minded
person, old and young alike; we require
your best work; we require unqUestioned
originality: we require pronounced
strength of plot and high dramatic inter-
est of story; we require grace and pre-
cision of narrative styles and correctness
in compositions; authors must be familiar
I
troduce, and not attempt to write in fields
of which they have no intimate knowl-
edge"
GRINDING OFT THE COPY.
| The concern that issues these irstruc-
tons requires 40, 900 to 80. 900 words, and
| at the cheapest rate would be five and one
| third words for Il cent. The cheap rate
named thus pays threc-fifths the price Of
ordinary copying. The authors of estab-
| lished popularity get very satisfactory
prices. The number of persons who cX-
| pertinent with the business of writing
| these stories is declared to be wonderful
| Some of the libraries reject three out Of
| four manuscripts, others eight out Of ten,
not counting the productions of the writers
that are on the regular corps, and who
| can grind out the same kind of copy with
the precision of machinery. The latter
| are supposed to get up their stories on the
/
| simply take the pegs out Of one hole and
stick them in another, adding variety and
producing the originality called for in the
| instructions by changing the starting
| point from the center TO the corners, or
vice versa, and picking up the pegs in q
diagonal line or around the circle as tho
| case may be. Some of the best writers in
| the country are stated to have attempted
| this line of writing, but have failed,
branching out into irrelevant dialogue
and padding up with descriptions, not he
ing able to keep up the interest in stu
alton or dialogue. The latter is absolutely
essential, as the average boy has to slide
down the hill of one page very fast or he
won't try to climb the top of the next.
One of the library publishers was
stopped by Anthony Comstock from pub
fishing the Jesse James series, under the
law prohibiting the making OF heroes out
of notorious criminals. The publishers
say il takes an edition of 200 10 pay for
a sixteen page dime book and Zoo fol-
the half dime work The business is now
picking up from the depression Of the past
few years. During the war the dime
novels sold enormously among the soldiers
The war library il playing out, the sales
having dwindled to very light figures
The books of these libraries are sold al
over the couatry.-New York Mail and
| Express.